Tampabay.com
JANUARY 03, 2009

Gators hoping to hold the Sooners to 16 or less

Despite the fact that Oklahoma has scored 60 or more points in its last five games, Florida is hoping to hold the Sooners to 16 points or under in next Thursday's BCS national championship game.

Before you scoff, listen to their reasoning. It's one of the goals they've had for every opponent all season.

"We have 12 goals that we like to reach every week like under 12 missed tackles, under 30% on third down, create three turnovers,'' junior LB Ryan Stamper said. "When we hit our goals that’s when we think we played good defense and I think our points is 16 or under. I think we can do it. It’s going to be pretty difficult but we think we can do it. We have been practicing for no-huddle, practicing getting guys on and off the field, certain situations. This is no doubt the best offense we have played all season but I think we can handle it. With the offense we have and the defense we have I think that makes our chances a lot better then theirs.''

Much of Saturday's media day talk centered around Florida's speed, and you could tell that after awhile the Sooners were getting a little tired of hearing about it. Oklahoma players said with all due respect to Florida, they aren't the only team with speed.

"Like coach said, a lot of teams have speed,'' RB Chris Brown said. "We're just preparing ourselves as best we can for Thursday night.''

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Florida Gators fans, welcome to the Gator Report for all your news about Gators football, basketball and all UF sports. It's written by University of Florida beat writer Antonya English and the staff of the Tampa Bay Times. We invite your comments and participation.

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